Principles for the conduct of company operations within the minerals industry

The following position paper has been prepared by Australian based NGOs, with a view to providing a basic set of principles which should be followed by minerals companies regardless of where they are operating or under what circumstances. It is intended to have a general application for the operations of mining and oil and gas companies. In addition we hope that the paper will provide a useful resource document for governments, communities and non-government organisations which are dealing with minerals companies, environmental and human rights issues.

Not a code of conduct
This paper is not a code of conduct and is not to be adopted or used as such. It is designed to provide a set of principles from which groups and organisations may draw guidance and which they may use as a basis for developing agreements on mining issues.

Enforcement of Codes of Conduct
The writers of this document believe that ideally codes of conduct should be legally binding and enforceable via legislation in Australia. Read about the Corporate Code of Conduct Bill 2000, which aims to do just that.

Authors
This paper has been written and edited by the Australian Asian-Pacific Mining Network. It was written and edited by Gideon Boas, Jeff Atkinson, Robert Stringer, Kate Gilmore, Malcolm Reid, Geoff Evans and Chris Harris after consultation with:
Australian Conservation Foundation
Australian Council for Overseas Aid
Australian Red Cross
Amnesty International
Community Aid Abroad
Mineral Policy Institute
World Wide Fund for Nature
Uniting Church - Social Responsibility & Justice
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (Mining Division)